TG5 - Oly vs Seafrog housing

[Kobayashi maru]

New to underwater photography.

Heading to Rarotonga soon with a TG5. I don't have lights and so am wondering about housing options. I can get a Seafrog for nearly half the price of the Oly housing. The main difference seems to be the Oly has a flash diffuser and better visibility of the screen.

Anyone have experience with either/both?

 

[Kobayashi maru]

So just in case someone searches this in the future here my decision and thought process.

I went for the Oly PT-058 for the following reasons.

- The internal flash still operates which will enable me to get some light onto some subjects prior to investing in actual lights. The Seafrog blocks the flash. As does the Ikelite housing.
- I read one question regarding the Seafrog that asked about reflections caused by the metal lens ring. Second hand info but raises a red flag.
- The Seafrog has an undersized viewing size on the back of the case which crops the LCD screen and may make it harder to read. I have poor eyesight and so this was a concern.
- The above two concerns gave me pause enough to think that I may want to upgrade from the Seafrog sooner rather than later (Or immediately if the vision issue to the LCD was bad).

The Oly is significantly more expensive that the Seafrog but on balance I believe the Oly is the right choice for me.

 

[Chris Ross]

Sounds like the right decision. If you are going to use the on board flash then I'd suggest setting up custom modes you can dial up - one for ambient one for flash. My daughter has a TG-4 and it is set for UW white balnce, f2.8 aperture priority and ISO200 for ambient and f8 ISO100 for forced flash. The idea is that the camera will bottom out at 1/30 sec SS in forced flash mode and going to f8 and ISO100 means the exposure will be dominated by flash but of course only usable for close in macro work.

 

[Kobayashi maru]

Thanks for the tip. The camera will be arriving in a day or two so will have a play.

One question I had with the TG-5/Macro/internal flash with diffusion from case, is what is the working distance for macro (I assume I will be zoomed in) and at what size subject should I switch to non-macro? I guess I could just wait for the camera and find out....